


In Nissa's Footsteps

by WotanAnubis



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Canon Compliant, Dominaria, F/F, Or at least until the Canon moves on again, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 08:17:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14328360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WotanAnubis/pseuds/WotanAnubis
Summary: In which Chandra chases after Nissa.





	In Nissa's Footsteps

Chandra appeared on Zendikar in a flash of light and fire. To her left a vast wood stretched away. Huge roots and branches loomed and twisted everywhere, a massive tangle of bark and moss and foliage. Giant leaves cast shadows everywhere, throwing the overwhelming forest into darkness.

To her right there was nothing. A dead, white plain, stretching all the way to the distant horizon. Strange geometric shapes seemed carved into that lifeless surface. Nothing grew there. Nothing bloomed. Nothing lived. Even desert were livier than this barren waste. Deserts still had insect and maybe a few stubborn plants. Not here.

But more importantly, or at least, more importantly to Chandra, Nissa was around here somewhere. Unfortunately, she wasn't exactly sure where. Around. Somewhere. Nearby, probably. Relatively speaking. Nissa wasn't anywhere in the wastes, at least. She'd be able to spot her or, really, _anything_ easily. Besides, the ruin the Eldrazi had left in their wake wasn't really the kind of place Nissa was likely to go to lick her wounds.

Which left the forest. Chandra stared at it for a moment or two. The moment she ventured into that tangled mess she'd get lost. _Maybe_ Nissa would find her in there. Probably Nissa would then also rescue her and lead her to wherever she was staying. But 'maybe' and 'probably' weren't quite good enough.

Chandra set out across the emptiness, walking along the woodline. The divide between the forest and waste was really pretty sharp. All those gnarled roots and trunks and branches just abruptly stopped where the lifeless white began. As though someone had drawn an invisible line the dark forest was unable to cross.

Alright, alright, with luck Nissa had set up shop at the edge of the forest. And, with luck, Chandra was heading in the right direction. So, let's say she found her, then what? Nissa had left in a pretty foul mood. OK, so, Liliana was to blame for that one, trying to rope the lot of them in to her dirty work for her yet again. And Gideon hadn't exactly helped matters by playing the lapdog. So at least Nissa wasn't upset at _her_. Still, if she saw her, she might be reminded of that whole mess and, well, kick her right back out again.

What she needed was a good opening line. Something convincing. If only she could think of anything. Chandra had never been one for the persuasive argument. Gideon, when he wasn't trying to justify Liliana's schemes, could really boost morale with an empowering speech and all that. And Liliana, well, she knew just what words to whisper to get people to do what she wanted. Jace? Well, not really one for small talk, but he could at least present a logical argument. And what did she have? A whole bunch of fire, that's what. Which wasn't gonna help here.

"Hey, remember that oath we all took?" Chandra said to nobody.

Yeah, no. No. That wasn't gonna work. Nissa had walked away from that whole thing. Or had declared she was done in a moment of hurt and anger. So maybe not walked, but just taken a break? Whatever. Point was, that wasn't going to work.

Something growled, somewhere to the left. Chandra turned sharply, trying to spot... well, whatever it had been. It hadn't sounded friendly. But she couldn't see anything. Nothing but branches and trees. Was there movement in there? Maybe, but it didn't seem inclined get any closer. Not because it, whatever it was, was afraid of her, but because it didn't want to get anywhere near the barren ground. Probably.

Chandra kept walking, a bit more warily. She heard nothing else, except the breeze rustling through the massive leaves. It'd probably been nothing, then.

"So how about that Liliana?" Chandra tried. "Now there's a woman who only thinks about herself, am I right?"

Better, but nah. Reminiscing about what a terrible person Liliana was might be enough for Nissa to not kick her out, but then again, she might just as easily get upset and angry and send her away. Besides, Chandra didn't really feel right, throwing Liliana under the Aradara Express like that. Not even if it meant bonding time with Nissa.

Chandra kicked the geometric ground. It would've been nice if some pebble had skittered away or if she'd kicked up some loose dirt. Instead nothing happened. The white surface didn't so much as get scuffed.

C'mon, she had to be able to think of _something_. She and Nissa got along, for the most part. They were... y'know... _friends_. And... sometimes... Well, anyway. Friends. She ought to be able just talk to her.

Except that everything was complicated right now. Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe she just thought it was complicated because she was all twisted up inside. Maybe she was just overthinking the whole thing.

Oh, yeah, sure, Chandra Nalaar. Overthinking things. That's something that actually happened.

Alright, so maybe she could simply offer to help Nissa when she saw her. Nissa wouldn't turn down an offer of help from her, right? No. No, she wouldn't. Except...

Chandra raised her hand. A little flame flickered in her palm.

Except what kind of help could she offer, really? Nissa wanted to heal her plane, see it flourish again. What could she do to help with that? The only thing she could do was burn the whole place down. Which wasn't really a good look. Maybe she could argue that all that ash would enrich the soil and life would be able to spring up more easily or something, but she was pretty sure Nissa wasn't gonna buy. After all, she herself wasn't buying it.

"Nissa, I need you."

Chandra sighed. It was honest. It had that going for it. And it was true on top of that. But she couldn't put that on Nissa, it wasn't fair. Alright, so her mind was constantly alight. So her thoughts were always flickering this way and that. So her soul was an all-consuming blaze. And other fiery metaphors.

And Nissa made it all better. Sort of. Calmed her down, allowed her to focus. Gave her the occasional brief glimpse of inner peace. Made her feel like she didn't have to do everything all at once right now. Could make her stop moving for just a moment so she could think. Or at least, decide to move way more purposefully.

And also...

Well...

Anyway...

Point was, she needed Nissa. But, so what? Just because she needed Nissa didn't mean she had any right to her. Nissa was free to make her own decisions and if she decided that, right now, she was just a bit too emotionally fragile to take care of her, who was she to argue?

Urgh. She should just turn around. Just leave. Go anywhere but here. Kaladesh, maybe. Regatha. Just really focus on her own fire and leave Nissa be. Why should she bother her when-

Hey, what's this?

Something broke through the lifeless white. Something tiny and green.

Chandra squatted down and stared at it. It was a plant. It wasn't much of a plant. Compared to the gargantuan forest on the other side of the invisible line it wasn't anything. It was just a tiny, fragile green stem with a very tiny, round little leaf. A whispered little _yes_ in an ocean of silence.

Right, then. Nissa was here. Had to be. No way this plant sprung up all on its own. Not here. Had to be Nissa's work. Or her influence or something. Alright, sure, it was just about possible that Zendikar's wild nature was reclaiming its own land, but that wasn't the case here. It was Nissa. It was definitely Nissa. Couldn't be anything or anyone else. Definitely.

Chandra turned to the walls of roots and branches. She tried to see... well, _anything_ in that shadowy labyrinth. Anything that might suggest something that wasn't completely natural. She didn't find it. Well, no matter. She knew Nissa was close, so...

Chandra ran two paces closer to the trees, then stopped abruptly. She turned to the quiet little plant, growing innocently in the devastation. Maybe she ought to pluck it. It'd cheer Nissa up a lot to know nature was reclaiming the wastes.

Oh. Oh, yeah, sure, that's... Really, what was she thinking? Hey, Nissa, I know you're really concerned your plane's half dead, so I murdered this plant to show you it's alive again. No. That wasn't going to work. Nissa'd do more than just kick her out, she'd probably strangle her with vines. Urgh. No.

Chandra ran into the woods. It wasn't as easy as she'd hoped. Thick roots undulated everywhere. Good news was, most of them were so big, it'd be impossible for her trip over any of them. Bad new was, she had to climb over her, or crawl underneath. She got dirt everywhere. Twigs and leaves got tangled in her red hair. She could burn those out easily enough, but she didn't want to risk it in this forest. Besides, there wasn't time. Nissa was around here somewhere! Who cared about her hair?

Chandra clambered up another sloping hill of a tree root and looked around wildly. Nothing. Nothing but still more forest surrounding her on all...

Wait...

That bunch of roots there, didn't seem quite natural. Actually, they seemed perfectly natural. As completely natural as everything else around. But they were shaped unnaturally. A bunch of them pressed up against each other, forming what kind of looked like a round hut or something. Could be Nissa's place. No, _had to be_ Nissa's place.

Chandra slid off the root and ran over to what she hoped was a hut. There wasn't anything approaching a door, so she just burst in. And stopped, panting. Staring.

Nissa.

Nissa was here, sitting cross-legged on a stool shaped from a tree. She looked like she'd been meditating, but she was looking at Chandra now.

"Nissa," Chandra gasped.

"Chandra," Nissa said. Her voice was carefully blank. Not angry, so that was good. Not happy either, which was pretty bad.

"Nissa, I..." Chandra stopped. Tried again. "You know, I... Uhh... See, I, uhm..."

Damn it! She'd found Nissa, but now she didn't know what to say. And she'd even practiced! Well, she'd tried to practice. And had failed miserably. But she'd made the effort. And now... she had to say something. Anything. _Now._

"Hey, Nissa, would you mind if I, y'know, just, kind of, hanged with you for a while?"

Nissa smiled. "Not at all," she replied. "I'd be glad for your company."

A huge grin crept across Chandra's face as all the tension drained from her body. "Great, that's... awesome. Thanks for not kicking me out."

"Why would I ever do that?" Nissa asked.

Chandra waved a hand vaguely. "Oh, don't worry about it. It's just... ah, forget it."

"Alright."

Nissa rose elegantly. She walked silently towards Chandra, looked at her with those inscrutable emerald eyes and said,

"Your hair's a mess. You do know that, right?"

"Oh," said Chandra. "Yeah. Didn't pay much attention, to be honest."

Nissa plucked an errant leaf out of Chandra's red hair. Looked at it for a moment, then let it drop to the ground.

"There's a very clear lake nearby. We can have a bath there," she said.

"Sounds ni- Wait, we?" said Chandra.

Nissa blushed. "Well," she stammered. "I wouldn't want you to get lost."

"Yeah, good point," Chandra said. "You know me and woods."

Nissa raised an arm. "Shall we, then?"

Chandra took it with a smile. "We shall," she said.


End file.
